The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Yahoo’s data breach affecting the accounts of half a billion customers will probably have an effect on its pending acquisition by Verizon, and that effect will be a “material” one that will affect how much Verizon pays. A Verizon executive explained at a technology conference today that the company still needs more information about the hack before tying the knot.

“I’ve got an obligation to make sure that we protect our shareholders and our investors, so we’re not going to jump off a cliff blindly,” Marni Walden, Verizon’s president of Product Innovation and New Businesses, told attendees of the WSJDLive conference in California, according to Reuters.

The goal of this acquisition, Walden explained, is to put Yahoo and AOL, internet giants from decades past that still have traffic and a large user base, together into one advertising entity that will be able to compare with the ad-serving behemoths that are Google and Facebook.

The problem with buying a legacy business, though, is that you also buy the good and bad parts of the business’s legacy. In Yahoo’s case, that’s the 2014 theft of crucial information like names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and email addresses, which the company didn’t disclose until September 2016, after Verizon’s purchase offer.

When asked whether it would be possible for Verizon to back out of the deal at this point, Walden pointedly changed the subject.